Electrolytic cell.



W. C. BUCKNAM.

ELECTROLYTIC CELLr PPucAUoN FILED 061122, 1914.

Patented Feb. 22,1916.

A TTOR/VEY BOURNONVILLE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N.

STA g WORTHY c. BUCKNAM, or JERSEY our, NEW JERsEY, ASSIGNOR T0 DAVIS- Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW ELECTROLYTIC. CELL Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 22, 1916.

Application filed-October 22, 1914. Serial No. 867,986.

7 '0 all whom it may concern:

Be'it known that I, WORTHY C. BUCK- NAM, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Marion, county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Electrolytic Cells, of which the following is a specification My invention relates to electrolytic cells for the production of oxygen and hydrogen by the electrolysis of-water,

and the object is to improve the construction, to reduce the manufacturing cost, to facilitate assemblage, and to guard against injury to the asbestos sacks or-diaphragms by which the anodes areinclosed.

The invention. comprises a certain combination and arrangement of parts, which will now be described and hereinafter more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings illustrating the invention:; Figure l is a vertical transverse section through the cell, the plane of the lefthand section being taken just inside the end wall of the tank and the right-hand portion of the'view being taken on planes successively removed from the. front of the tank:

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the cover with the parts attached thereto; and Fig. 3 is a fragmentary horizontal section.

The cell comprises a rectangular tank body 2, the walls of whichconstitute part of the cathode element of the cell, and a cover 3 heldby bolts 4, tightly closing the top of thetank, and bearing Ya flange 5 for attachment of the negative terminal 6. Two

anodes 7 are suspended in ismifrom the cover, from whidh they are insulated. In the particular? construction shown these anodes are hollowjbodies formed of slitted sheet metal, each anode comprising parallel adjacent side 'walllsconn'ected by rounded ends upper edges of the. sheet metal walls of the anodes are united to conducting and supporting bars 8, which in turn areiinited to.

hollow conducting and supporting studs 2. the latter extending upward through apertures in the cover and being threaded at their upper ends to receive nuts 10, which bear upon the tops of terminal blocks 11 resting on the cover and having the positive terminal 12 clamped thereto. Over the anodes are separators 13 of non-conducting material and of inverted trough form, also Jersey City, in the fore described as formed in generalparalleland a rounded bottom, The,

supported by the bars 8"and studs 9, the

latter passing through the tops of the sepa; rators. Fastened to the separators by clamp bands 14 are depending asbestos sacks'lfi, which inclose the anodes below the li uid level and with the separators form comp ete insulating inclosures about the positive electrodes. The walls of the separators plunge for a sufficient distance beneath the electrolyte level to insure against communication between the oxygen-collecting chambers, formed by the separators, and the hydrogen collecting space beneath the cover within the general interior of the tank; and the ashes tos sacks constitute diaphragms, which offer no resistance to the current but prevent mingling of the evolved gases as long as they are submerged in the liquid. The oxygen is carried off through the hollow studs 9 and tubes 16 of'insulating material to olftake pipmg 17, while the hydrogen escapes through the cover by an insulating tube 18 to piping l9. Replenishment of the liquid in the tanks is effected from an open trough 20 and a downtake 21 passing through the cover-and plunging beneath the electrolyte for asuitable distance, where it rests on a block 22 fixed to the partition.

The cathode element of the cell, heretopart by" the Walls of the tank, which'is electrically con.- nected with the cover by bolts 4, is completed by a partition 23, dividing the interior of the tank into narrow, upright compartments, each occupied by an anode with its inclosing separator and sack. This parti'tion is formed of two plates, united back to back, with their end portions 24separated and curved in reversed directions, in general conformity with the curve of the anodes, into proximity or contact with the end and side walls-of the tank, thus forming pockets in which it is important to dispose the sacks without danger of tearing as a unit into the poses and have their lower portions extendcover closing the top ofthe tank bodyan'd ing along and Welded to the curved extenelectrically connected therewith, anoc es of sions 24 of the partitions and their upper large surface suspended and insulated from portions passed through the cover and the cover, and. diaphragms also supported rigidly and electrically connected therewith from the cover, in combination with a partiby nuts 26. As thus supported the upper tion constituting the remainder ofqthe edge of the partition is spaced below the cathode element and dividing the interior cover, thus permitting free passage of of the tank body into narrow vertical com hydrogen beneath the same, and its bottom partments .containim the anodes and dia:

is also spaced from the bottom of thetank phragms, and mom era supporting said in order to permit free communication for partition from and in electricalconnection the electrolyte from one part of the tank to with the cover and with its top at a distance the other. When the cover is put in place below'ihe same.

with its assembled, supported parts the par- 3.111 a cell for the electrolysis Water,

tition enters the tank with a sliding fit, a tank body the Walls of which constitute and by virtue of its reversely-directedexpart of the cathode element of the cell, a a I, I

tensions 2& receives lateral support from the cover closing the top of the tank body, and opposite side walls of the tan c. anodes and incloslng diaphragm sacks Thegeneral features of the cell illus suspended from the cover, in combination trated herein form the invention of another, with a cathode partitionfialsosupported the anodes, said partition on the one hand In testimony whereof 'I have my and accordingly I do not claim the same, "from the cover and having a sliding fit in but the tank body withitshorizontal extremi What I do claim as new is: ties extended laterally and'rec'eiving sup 1. In a cell for the electrolysis of water, port from the opposite side Wallsof the a tank body, a cover for closing the top of tank.

the same, a partition dividing the interior 4:- In a cell for the electrolysis of water, of the tank body intoinarrow vertical comthe combination of atank body, av cover for partments, said partition and the walls of closing the top of thesatne, oblong anodes,

the tank'body together forming the cathode separators and diaphragm sacks all supelement of the cell, anodes of large surface ported from the cover, and a cathode eledisposed vertically Within said compartment also supported from the cover and ments, separators over the anodes and beforming pockets for the pro'tection-of the neath the cover, and diaphragm sacks desacks when the parts are'insertcdandrepending from the. separators and inclosing moved.

and the anodes, separators and sacks on the name in the presence of twosubsci'ihing other hand being all supported from the witnesses.

cover. WORTHY (3.1,13UoKiIAMM 1 v,

2. In cell for the electrolysis of water, Witnesses: a tank body the walls of which constitute J. F. BRANDENBURG,

part of the cathode element of the cell, a -E. Gm-xnxmcaonn; 

